characters

Charlotte & Sonja

“Humming lamps shone on the figures: identical twins with the same shoulder-length brown hair; the same long, lanky limbs; and the same ill-fitting raincoats. Their names were Charlotte and Sonja, and the only way to tell them apart was the mole above Charlotte’s right cheek.”

Mr. Fortune Teller

“Mr. Fortune Teller was not much taller than the twins. He had a large, hooked nose and frizzy salt-and-pepper hair. He wore a checked wool suit and a matching bow tie. A hunk of tortoiseshell dangled from a foxtail chain around his neck. He was the wisest person the twins had ever met. He had taught them how to read and write and understand the world – as it was now, and as it had been before the cities had taken over.”

Tatty Tatters

“She was Tatty Tatters, their adoptive mother, the Tattooed Lady of the circus. Every inch of skin from the top of her neck to the ends of her painted toenails was illustrated in full color: forests, mountains, lakes, deserts, islands, caverns, meadows -- and animals and creatures of every size and shape. The script across her chest readThe Seven Edens."

Kats Von Stralen

“The beggarman looked up to see a tall figure in a black suit, a coat slung over his shoulders, and a brimmed hat tilted over one eye. A white Persian cat slunk around his feet, arched its back, and hissed."